Obama Calls Absence of Tax Increases 'Spending In the Tax Code'

President Obama delivers his weekly address, posted by the White House on July 2 (Image: White House)

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama called for tax hikes in his weekly address released on Saturday, calling the absence of new tax increases “spending in the tax code."

Talking about dealing with the federal deficit, Obama said: “And nothing can be off limits, including spending in the tax code, particularly the loopholes that benefit very few individuals and corporations.”

During his weekly address on Saturday, Obama added to the populist rhetoric he featured during his White House press conference last week, when he said Americans must choose between paying for perks going to corporate jet owners and hedge fund managers, or paying for medical research and college scholarships.

In his weekly address, Obama appeared to say that taxes not collected by the federal government were the same as expenditures.

“Over the last few weeks, the vice president and I have gotten both parties to identify more than $1 trillion in spending cuts,” he said. “That’s trillion with a ‘t.’ But after a decade in which Washington ran up the country’s credit card, we’ve got to find more savings to get out of the red.”

“That means looking at every program and tax break in the budget--every single one--to find places to cut waste and save money,” the president continued.

“It means we’ll have to make tough decisions and scale back worthy programs. And nothing can be off limits, including spending in the tax code, particularly the loopholes that benefit very few individuals and corporations.”

Obama then suggested that the government must cut "spending in the tax code" or cut "make even deeper cuts" in other kinds of "spending."

“Now, it would be nice if we could keep every tax break, but we can’t afford them,” he said. “Because if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or for hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, or for oil and gas companies pulling in huge profits without our help--then we’ll have to make even deeper cuts somewhere else. We’ve got to say to a student, ‘You don’t get a college scholarship.’ We have to say to a medical researcher, ‘You can’t do that cancer research.’ We might have to tell seniors, ‘You have to pay more for Medicare.’”